Design Responsibility.
On a final note 4D Design could challenge the ethics of design and its management. Responsive and adaptable behaviour in the natural world, such as is found in the botanical systems from our gardens to the planets rain forests, ensures efficient use of energy and resources. New control technologies can also make material artifacts more efficient too, but imagine millions of animatronic consumer products made possible by low cost mechatronic and microchip technologies. Such 'real' 4D designs would increase humankind's use of energy because movement of physical components is central their dynamic form. This may well significantly increase the probability of global warming and be a devastating blow to the natural environment, and ultimately threaten our own survival. It is difficult to see how the development of consumer products will not take this route.
However many 4D designs could be beneficial for the natural environment. An international economy increasingly built upon the consumption of well designed non-material products, where the technologies include 'people' as well as software and cultural ideas, has obvious environmental and material resource benefits.
This position paper is a tentative step to more rigorous consideration of the ideas, concepts and terms used. It asserts that 4D Design will help to create the much needed new opportunities for wealth generation and a way forward to enrich the quality of life being sought . It presents challenges for design research, design practice and design education. Time will tell whether the notion of 4D Design as outlined here, will bring a breath of fresh air into the academic debate within design, professional practice , design research and design education.
References.
1. Robertson, Alec "Technolust versus Creative Design: Some Implications for Design of 'Intelligent Consumer Products'. CSD / IEE Symposium 20 Jan 1992. IEE Digest No. 1992/013.
2. Robertson, Alec. "Smart Consumer Products with a 'Pathfinder ' Development Strategy" in Proc. 2nd European Conference on Smart Structures and Materials. 12-14 Oct. 1994." Smart Structures Research Institute. Univ. of Strathclyde. Glasgow.
3. Myerson, J. (ed.) "Design Renaissance :Selected Papers". Open Eye Publishing Horsham Sussex. 1994
4. Rucker, Rudy. "The Fourth Dimension". Penguin Books, London 1986.
5. Robertson, Alec. "4D Design: Towards an New Design Frontier". DMI 'Design Management Journal' .Vol 5. No.3 Boston. USA. Summer 1994. pp 26-30.
6. Mitchell, C, Thomas. "Redefining Designing; from Form to Experience". Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York. 1992.
7. Gibson, William "Neuromancer". Ace Books, New York. 1984
Further Reading:
Jones, John Chris. "Designing designing" Architectural Design and Technology Press. London 1991.
Krueger, Myron W, "Artificial Reality ll". Addison Wesley. 1991.
Potter, Frank. "Art in the Electronic Age". Thames & Hudson, London 1993.
Robertson, Alec. "Microprocessor Application: Some Implications for Industrial Design". MA. Thesis (unpublished). Department of Design Research Royal College of Art, London. 1979
Robertson, Alec. (Ed.) "4D Dynamics Conference Proceedings" ISBN 1857211308. Department of Industrial Design,De Montfort University. Leicester.UK (1995)
Robertson, Alec. "4D Product Design, Mechatronic & Multimedia Technology: Some Conceptual Challenges" in Proc 4th National Product Design Education Conference PDE 97, Brunel University, London, July 1997.
Thackera, J. (Ed.) "Design After Modernism". Thames & Hudson. 1988.
Published in Proceedings of the 4D Dynamics Conference 21 Sept. 1995. De Montfort University, Leicester. ISBN 1857211308. COPYRIGHT © Alec Robertson 1995.
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4D Product Design- Another paper by Alec Robertson
"4D Design: Applied Performance"- paper by Alec Robertson.